Three-hop repeaters have proven to be effective instruments in combating weak or no coverage in various environments, such as residential homes and small businesses. A three hop repeater consists of two radiating elements: a donor element and a server element. In one implementation of such a system, the donor element is called a network unit, because this unit connects to a signaling network, and the server element is called a coverage unit, because this unit provides signal coverage inside of a home or business. The donor and server elements are typically separated in distance to allow the repeater to have higher gain than can be achieved in the case of repeater where the donor and server elements are close together or even integrated into one enclosure.
The connection between the donor and server elements can be made using any one of a number of different means. For example, the link can be made using a fiber cable, a copper cable, or wirelessly. In many cases, the available bandwidth on the connection between the donor and server is limited. Typically the way in which the repeater will deal with this is to have less relay bandwidth. Further, conventional repeater systems allocate bandwidth in a symmetrical way on the link between the donor and server elements to ensure than any service offered in the downlink is also offered in the uplink direction.